Aleutian Islands, Alaska

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of rugged, volcanic islands curving 1,900 kilometer west from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula and approaching Russia's Komandorski Islands, separate the Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Alaska has 43 of the nation's 53 historically active volcanoes. 

The 2,500 km long Aleutian arc is a chain of large calc-alkaline, strato volcanoes with huge calderas. It is responsible for nearly all the historical volcanism of Alaska. Volcanoes on the Aleutian Islands, on the Alaska Peninsula, and in the Wrangell Mountains are part of the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds the Pacific Ocean basin. 

There are more than 80 potentially active volcanoes in Alaska, about half of which have had at least one eruption since 1760, the date of the earliest written record of eruptions.